SYRACUSE -- After a full day of stunting with random classic television theme songs, the anticipated all-talk format is now in place on Citadel's WLTTI. "105.9 The Big Talker" debuted this morning with the syndicated Bob & Tom Show.
The change might be a surprise to most listeners, but to readers of CNYRadio.com and other radio trade websites, it's old news. Citadel confirmed its intent to flip formats last week, two days after radioinsight.com discovered Citadel had registered a new web domain for 1059thebigtalker.com -- and reasonably argued why the change was unlikely for the other Citadel-owned stations on the 105.9FM frequency (there are only two).
By the end of the week, we had learned the weekday lineup for the new talk format, but Citadel didn't reveal the exact launch date or time until the new format went live this morning. Until today, station management had only said the new format would go live "sometime" this week.
[...] Update 3/3: After a short stunt with TV Theme Songs, “105.9 The Big Talker” launched today in Syracuse. More at CNYRadio.com. [...]
Tuned in Gary Nolan's first day and he's pretty good, working out the new job and new studio bugs aside. Had to turn off Mark Levin after a few minutes, guy just gets on my nerves the same way Jim Reith does. I like Fred Thompson, too, so I may switch back and forth, but it's nice to hear a local guy in PM drive who's not an idiot.
If nothing else, though, there will be an alternative for when WSYR insists on running baseball and pre-empting it's talkers this summer - which judging by the commercials seeking advertising during Yankees coverage, is going to go on for yet another year. Three sports stations in town and Yankees baseball is on a talk station??? Well, it is Syracuse.